All looking lovely and refreshed after the night of rain Karen....you have some lovely blooms there - and lots more to come :))
Are you going to be able to sit back and enjoy now? Why do I think the answer to that question will be no!

Putting me to shame there Karen with all that hard work , very little inclination to get anything much done at present ( and little opportunity !)
All looking wonderful there , so pleased that you are settling back so well . (Good news on the JKW front too .)

just got it,K......how lovely it looks......your extra hard work has definitely paid off!!!! the heron is magnificent.I'm very jealous!!!!!!Is the little blue flowered plant an Omphalodies?Such a mouthful but very sweet plant.x

Thank you, Oliveoil...but, I can't take any credit for the weather...have given up on 'tropicals' and gone back to what's right for here. I've done it before, but was lulled into a false sense of security this time...

Pam...I could have ordered 'Dawn', but it would have been several weeks before it arrived...and...I'm toooo impatient - well, you know how it is? ;)
...and I'm very happy!!! :)))

Paul and Julia...the heron has been there for longer than any of the plants - dead or alive!! He was a great buy!! He came in three different sizes...and I was really tempted by the BIG one! Thank goodness sense prevailed and I went for 'medium'...lol! :)))

Paul...tonight, their names don't matter...they're planted!!! I'll be asking you at later date...when I'm not so kn*****ed!!! lol!!! :)))))

Thanks for your support, Driad...much appreciated! :)))))

Annie...this is the cheapest bling you could possibly find! €12.50!!! :)))

What a lovely colourful garden you have created. You could just scatter annual seeds and the result would fill all the gaps and give you time to choose what you want to put where. Well done. I do like that new begonia.

What a wonderful and colourful garden you've got Karen, and all your plants are much more further on than ours here. I like your choice of Heuchera - they seem to be very popular plants with a lot of GoY gardeners. Think I'll treat myself to one or two at the weekend... ! Thanks for sharing your garden with us.

You have a lovely garden Karen, you seem to be working on it all the time! I keep on seeing Hercheres in everyones gardens, they seem to be one of the 'in' plants, so many different ones. Pretty please could you send us some sunshine :)

Calendula, Cosmos, Larkspur, Nigella, Scabious, Cerinthe or a mixed packet of summer flowering garden annuals will give you lots of colour and flowers to pick if you like them indoors. I'm sure there will be plenty of other suggestions of annuals to sow direct in the garden now. I don't think that the shade will be a problem because they need the soil to be warming up so they can germinate. You probably get some sun in all parts of the garden at some time during the day.

Hi Suzy! It has been that way...since a week past Tuesday!!! But it had to be done...I can slow down a bit now...phew...!

I'd love to send you some sun...just as soon as I'm sure that it is here to stay for a while! It was raining here all day on Tuesday, when I did all this planting...but, it saved me having to water them in. :)

I think that I saw some seed mixtures in Lidl, Sg...I'll go and have a wee look and let you know what I get. When I was there yesterday I bought an edible solanum, a tibouchina, a passion flower and a datura...all for €2.50 each. So, that's what I'll be doing today.

Good morning Bloomer :))
I slept in this morning until 8 o'clock...that's not like me! Cleaning lady coming this morning to help with everything I haven't done in the house... lol ;)))

Pamg These vine weevils seem to be everywhere nowadays. I had never seen one until a neighbour gave me some Pacific Giant primulas to sell at one of our open days. As you probably know primulas and heucheras seem to be prime targets for the little horrors. I hope you have saved your plants. I put the soil in the bin after squashing as many as possible but its just another hazard of gardening.
Karen an edible solanum sounds like a potato or a tomato I hope you post a picture soon. I had a quick google and apparently they are used by the aborigines in Australia. Are you planting the tibouchino in a pot so you can take it indoors in winter. The datura will need to come in too I think. You are going to need a conservatory. The passion flower grows outside here in UK. You do get fruit but its not edible. It all sounds very good.

These are all for pots, Sg...I will start the green-house griping (sorry I meant hinting) at a later date. ;)

The solanum is muricatum (I've never heard of it before), also known as 'pepino melon'. It has strange yellow and red fruits. I got it because it looks interesting (and it was cheap!) and if they taste nice, it will be a bonus!!

I have had passion flower before, but it took over the whole garden and I had a devil of a job getting rid of it - this one's going in a pot!!! I don't really like the fruits - but the flowers are so nice, and it might be just the thing for a quick scramble up a trellis (hiding the septic tank filter bed from a different direction).

People do have datura in the ground here and they're enormous - at least they were before this past winter...
I'm not willing to risk it...

Pix - I've been and had a look...and I think I left a comment. Not sure though, it kept telling me that I'd done something wrong! It's a really nice painting and you've captured the light and the water so well...

...but go and see if my comment registered, hen, it was a bit better than this one!! x

That is beautiful, Pix...you've captured the light so well! I love the way you've made the water sparkly, with the hills and the sky...

Did you used to go paddling there when you were a bairn? xxx It worked!

No I didnt ..lol
I was driving to Kenmore one day..there was a thuderstorm.,. i stopped by the side of the road for a smoke..watching it,,then the rain and thunder stopped, the sun came out and i ran down the hill to this wee stream..the smells were amazing and the colours so vibrant..i jsut stood on a rick in front of this., arms outstretched soaking it all in..took some pics but more than anything soaked up the atmosphere did a wee sketch too..then came home and started to paint..never got to Kenmore yet! Its a huge painting! :)

I dunno exactly...but, she's serious. She's already turning over more than a million a year with what she's got going...and she wants to get into something she'd 'enjoy' more. I said I would ask around... :)